Anthem - western 10/29 a quick review

[UandMe4Ever]

We arrived at the pier about 10:25 and by 10:30 we were checked in. Waited inside for a while and to our surprise, no longer a bus to take us to the ship. In an orderly fashion, up the escalator and on to the ship. What a beauty she is! We did not know where to look first.

 

We headed to Two70 for a quick lunch. Nothing special and a fairly short line. About 1:00 pm our cabin was ready. We had a D6 Balcony on the 11th deck portside. It was a decent room, nicely laid out. Our bed was by the balcony. The closets are not laid out well. One closet has an upper and lower bar and narrow. Hard to pack all the clothes in and could not see what was on the bottom rack. The second closet was even smaller, but somehow we managed. If you turned too much, your head hits the teeny nightstand! The drawer space was fine.

 

We asked for robes for our cabin attendant, foam topper and extra comforter for the bed. The beds are like everyone said...TERRIBLE! I kept turning over all right and by morning, my hips were pretty sore. Much improvement is needed in that department. Our cabin steward was wonderful and kept our cabin spotless at all times. 2x a day ice in the bucket for sure.

 

We had Dynamic Dining and we pleased with many of the menus in all the Restaurants. We did not partake of any specialty restaurants. Some food was very good and some just fine. A bar server came around every meal asking about drinks, and there were pepper mills on most tables (LOL). The servers, except for 1 or 2 weren't very professional at all. never came by to see if you needed anything. It was like "here's your food", eat and go. They had a habit of bringing the appy and salad at the same time, until we told them, first appy, then salad, then soup, etc. Quite inexperienced in our opinion. Not at all the 'classy' service we had become used to after more than 30 years of cruising. (Probably more than 25 cruises, various lines). I would like to mention a server in Chic who did go out of his way to check and make sure we were happy. His name is Peter. We did make all dining and show reservations on line and had no problem. I suggest that be done.

 

The Esplanade is one huge disaster. Not big enough to get around the daily crowds looking at the same things over and over again. The gift shop is very small and the jewelry stores have "out of sight prices". Not much of a selection and the little café has little to offer for snacks. They stopped having cookies at night for a snack and very unpleasant looking sandwiches. The close the WJ at 9:30, so out of luck if you really wanted something 'decent' later on...Not a good thing.

 

Shows were ok and we've seen far better on Princess and NCL ships. (NCL is the best in the entertainment department). JMHO. We saw the We will rock you show and that was very good and very loud. We skipped the other two ticket only shows....

 

The casino was OK but could be larger for such a big ship. They did not have poker machines that start at 25 cents, but rather a $1.00 minimum...Many cruisers felt that it wasn't fair..they did have the quarter start in the smoking section, but only 6 I think. Not enough.

 

Solarium is a beautiful, relaxing area. We did not partake of bumper cars, flow rider, etc. Just not for us. We met some very lovely people from all over and that was nice.

 

Would we go on the Anthem again? Probably not. Many things need to be worked out. Use of space is one of them and better service in the dining rooms. We hardly saw the CD Dru Pavlov, and wasn't impressed with him at all, even introducing the shows. We also never really saw the Captain out and about. We did, however, enjoy the ports (no excursions). We still prefer the Southern or Eastern Caribbean cruises much better. I would say that for being on many Royal ships, Anthem was a bit of a disappointment!

 

We did the Anthem since we leave in NJ and don't always want to fly to different cities for a cruise.

 

I hope this gives you a little insight to the Anthem. As always, choices are subjective and this is just my opinion.

 

I wish you all smooth sailing on whatever ship you choose. Remember, the best ships of all are Friendships!!

 

Stay safe all :-)

Edited November 13, 2016 by UandMe4Ever

[easyboy]

Sorry that the Anthem did not live up to your expectations. There are other choices anyway. Thanks for the feedback.

 

 

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[UandMe4Ever]

Thanks for not bashing my review! Yes, many cruise lines to choose from as we have in 25 sailing. Not loyal to any line just go with where and what itinerary works for us.

 

safe sails always.

[champagne123]

Thanks for not bashing my review! Yes, many cruise lines to choose from as we have in 25 sailing. Not loyal to any line just go with where and what itinerary works for us.

 

safe sails always.

 

It's funny. I am not partial to any cruise line either....but a couple of things you pointed out, I feel sooooooo differently. You boarded the ship as we were leaving . I NEVER give a hoots potato who the CD is and never really even notice to critique him/her. We all thought Dru was AMAZING. He actually made me laugh a few times. The Captain? FABULOUS. He was on the pool deck every single day ...for nine days for approximately 30 minutes speaking "individually" to people. I have never, ever seen this before. He was wonderful, friendly and spent time with everyone on the deck. Not saying that this cruise was perfect, but most of the things you spoke of, I feel the opposite. Service "spectacular".

[riclop]

Thanks for the quickie.

[UandMe4Ever]

Guess we were in the Solarium when the Captain was 'out and about'. I'm sure he was very nice. I guess everyone has a different opinion about cruise ships, foods, staff, etc. I'm glad you had a great cruise..

[DaniDanielle]

We had Peter in September, praised him highly on the survey. Hope he is there for our January cruise.

 

 

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[davy jones]

We were on the same sailing and agree with many of your observations. Some of your experiences were different from our, but 4000 people have 4000 different sets of experiences.

 

Thanks for posting.